1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to disk drives, and more particularly, to a guide rail assembly for use in a disk drive, the guide rail assembly minimizing vibrations between the tray and the housing when the tray is secured inside the housing during a play mode.
2. Description of the Prior Art
CD-ROM and DVD disk drives are well-known. For example, CD-ROM disk drives are commonly used within a notebook-size personal computer. A CD-ROM is a type of an optical disk which is capable of storing a large amount of data including programs or database data. The CD-ROM, which is placed in the CD-ROM disk drive, is accessed by a laser pickup of the CD-ROM disk drive so that data is reproduced from the CD-ROM.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional CD-ROM disk drive 20, which includes a tray 22 which is slidably positioned in a housing 23 of the disk drive 20 for reciprocating movement in both an ejecting direction A and an inserting direction B. The housing 23 has a top cover and a bottom cover 28, and the tray 22 includes a chassis that is secured (e.g., by screws) to the bottom of the tray 22. When a disk (not shown) is loaded into the disk drive 20, the tray 22 (with the disk being placed thereon) is manually pushed into the disk drive 20 in the inserting direction B and set at a loaded position in the disk drive 20.
In the disk drive 20, a drive unit (not shown) is provided below the tray 22. A turntable 24 which is rotated by a spindle motor (not shown) is attached to the drive unit, with the disk that is placed on the tray 22 being held on the turntable 24. An optical pickup 26 is coupled to the drive unit for accessing the disk to read out data from the disk. A pickup moving unit (not shown) is also coupled to the drive unit for moving the optical pickup 26 in a radial direction of the disk.
An ejection unit is provided for ejecting the tray 22 from the housing 23. A front bezel 30 is attached to a front end of the tray 22, and includes a rectangular opening which extends laterally in the front bezel 30. An ejection switch 32 is attached to the tray 22 and provided in the rectangular opening of the front bezel 30. When the ejection switch 32 is manually pressed, the tray 22 is ejected from the housing 23 to an ejected position, where the tray 22 at the ejected position can be further pulled out from the housing 23 to a disk-change position by the user. When the tray 22 is set at the disk-change position (as shown in FIG. 1), the tray 22 is completely outside the confines of the housing 23 and the disk on the tray 22 can be removed and replaced with a new one.
A guide rail assembly is provided to guide the movement of the tray 22 in either the inserting direction or the ejecting direction. FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate the guide rail assembly of the conventional disk drive 20 of FIG. 1. The guide rail assembly includes a pair of movable rails 34, a pair of guide rails 36, and a pair of slide rails 38. One movable rail 34 is secured to each of the opposing sides of the tray 22 and arranged such that each movable rail 34 is movable with respect to the bottom cover 28. Each guide rail 36 is secured to each of the opposing sides of the bottom cover 28, and each guide rail 36 is arranged on the bottom cover 28 so that the guide rail 36 can extend in directions parallel to the corresponding movable rail 34. Each guide rail 36 has a channel that receives a corresponding slide rail 38 therein, and each slide rail 38 also has a channel that receives a corresponding movable rail 34 therein. Each slide rail 38 is movably arranged between the corresponding movable rail 34 and guide rail 36 so that the slide rail 38 is movable with respect to both the movable rail 34 of the tray 22 and the guide rail 36 of the bottom cover 28. In other words, there is a relative displacement between each set of slide rail 38 and movable rail 34, and between each set of slide rail 38 and guide rail 36. Each set of rails 38+34 and 38+36 slides along its own defined paths.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the connections between the rails 34, 36, 38, and the support provided by these rails 34, 36, 38, play an important role when the tray 22 and its play module 40 are completely slid out of the confines of the housing 23 of the disk drive 20. Regardless of whether the tray 22 is in the play mode (i.e., with the tray 22 completely retained inside the housing 23) or in the disk-change mode (i.e., with the tray 22 completely pulled out of the confines of the housing 23), there must be sufficient clearance between each of the rails in the two sets of rails (e.g., sufficient clearance between rails 34 and 38, and between the rails 36 and 38) to allow for smooth reciprocating movement of the tray 22. However, as best shown in FIG. 2, when the tray 22 is in the play mode, the movable rails 34 on the sides of the tray 22 virtually contact the walls of the channel of the sliding rails 38, so there is usually insufficient clearance to offset any vibrations that may be caused by the disk drive 20. For example, in such a situation, vibrations from the external environment can be transferred via the housing 23 and the rails 36, 38, 34 (in this order) to the tray 22 and its play module 40 during the play mode, which can seriously affect the performance of the disk drive 20. As another example, vibrations from the play module 40 and optical pickup 24 can be transferred via the tray 22 and the rails 34, 38, 36 (in this order) to the external environment. The user will be uncomfortable when the housing 23 vibrates, and such vibrations can have a negative effect on the other parts of the notebook computer. In other words, this lack of a sufficient clearance between the rails 34, 38, 36 may worsen the effect of any vibrations that may be generated.
Widening the clearances of the channels in the rails 36 and 38 does not necessarily provide an adequate solution to this problem, because an excessively large clearance may give rise to multi-directional shaking of the tray 22, and may have a negative impact on the smooth sliding motion of the movable rails 34 in the channel of the slidable rails 38.
Thus, there remains a need for a guide rail assembly that minimizes the effects of vibrations, and which minimizes the spread of vibrations.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a guide rail assembly that minimizes the effects of vibrations, and which minimizes the spread of vibrations.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a guide rail assembly that promotes smooth movement by the tray when the tray is being slid between the play mode and the disk-change mode.
The objects of the present invention may be accomplished by providing a guide rail assembly for use with a disk drive, the assembly having a first rail that has a raised ridge with a wavy upper edge and a wavy lower edge, and a second rail having a channel defined therein, with the channel having a wavy upper wall and a wavy lower wall. The raised ridge of the first rail is positioned for reciprocating movement inside the channel of the second rail.